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Saturday, August 30, 2008

...aaand the masks come off!

Well, the early reactions to McCain's pick of Sarah Palin as his running mate are in, and already we see the micron-thin veneer of civility peel away from the Democrat's faces.

As if we didn't know it from their failure to even consider Hillary Clinton for the #2 spot, we know it now... these are not the people that brought you Geraldine Ferraro. No, the current "champions of women's rights" are sexist pigs. Let's look at the criticisms so far:

"If she were a man with these qualifications she'd never be considered for this position." This is worth raucous laughter. The Democrat's own pick for the NUMBER ONE slot has far fewer qualifications! Hypocrisy at its most blatant.

This is "tokenism". If she's a token woman, Obama's a token black... and I'll jump down anybody's throat who makes that allegation, too. They really don't want to go there. The fact is she is exactly what McCain and the Republican party need.

"She's only on the ticket because Hillary isn't". This is an insult to Palin's qualifications. She is the only person with experience as a chief executive on either ticket. If Hillary were on the ticket, Palin would still be the only candidate with such experience. Hillary's second best only because she watched the job being done. If the Democrats find it such a disadvantage that Hillary isn't on their ticket, then it was a damned stupid move not to offer her the VP position. So if you accept their argument here, then Obama doesn't even have enough sense to have chosen the right running mate. So much for "hitting it out of the park".

"This is a 'Dan Quayle' choice." This is a deliberate insult to Palin's intelligence. They don't want to go there, either. This is one smart woman. Besides, the argument boomerangs immediately: they must have forgotten that Quayle actually got the job.

"Will she have time for her children?" This is an insult, period... to everyone. No one asked if Joe Biden was qualified for his office when his wife died. So a job is OK for him, but not her? Even when she has a spouse to share the load and Biden didn't? Oh, yeah... the masks are really off. I'm personally offended by it, having been a single parent and a current sole wage earner and have had to do that balancing act under the worst possible conditions. If you truly buy this argument - if you think Palin can't balance her career and family life - then it says nothing about her, and everything about your own shortcomings. Not everyone's a pathetic wimp, so stop measuring them with your yardstick.

Reuters published a photo of Palin's shoes, for crying out loud. I'd show you a picture, but Reuters don't know much about Fair Use. Google.

If you didn't know who Obama was before, you're starting to know now.

Just as I predicted last night, the Obama campaign are focusing on Palin's qualifications for President, inviting the comparisons with Obama. They've forgotten already that it is McCain at the top of the ticket. They're running against G.W. Bush, and against Palin. They're ignoring the many years that McCain has demonstrated his willingness to put his country's needs above his party's. This has rightly has earned him the label "maverick". This cannot be erased by simply pretending it doesn't exist, as we will see in the upcoming Republican convention. Obama's strategy is to put his fingers in his ears and sing "La la la!". Not really a mature way to run a campaign.